Talk about sneaking a fastball right by us (*slide whistle*). The Black Keys’ drummer Patrick Carney posted a photo of a Little League Baseball jersey to his Instagram account back on June 27, and he claimed that it was for an actual team that the band was sponsoring. Now, I don’t know if people just thought it was some new hipsterific shirt for fans of the band or whatever, but it went mostly unnoticed, save for a few people (myself included) who would really like to own one of these now, please and thank you.

But it turns out that the jerseys are legit and the band indeed sponsored its own rag tag team of Little Leaguers in Akron, Ohio, where singer, Dan Auerbach, cut his teeth as a young ballplayer.

TMZ has learned … Keys lead singer Dan Auerbach played for the West Akron Baseball League in Ohio as a kid … and jumped at the chance to sponsor a team for them when a board member asked if he was interested.

The WABL’s president says it only cost the group $300 to make it happen … and everyone on the team couldn’t have been happier with their involvement.

The best part — after the season was over … Auerbach, along with Keys drummer Patrick Carney, told the kids to send mail them their jerseys and they’ll autograph every single one. (Via TMZ Sports)

And if any of those kids are interested, I have approximately 30 Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco rookie cards that I’ve been sitting on since 1987 that I’d be willing to trade them for one of those autographed jerseys. Not interested? How about a pack of Big League Chew?